weird fish

movie and sketches

so i watched 'There Will Be Blood' Friday night with the boys. it started off pretty slow. i will say that the visuals were pretty good, but i really wish the story grabbed my interest more. i started drawing while this was on, and you could say that it is not fair to judge this movie if i really wasn't watching it, but i will say that 'No Country For Old Men' made me put down the pencil and paper, 'There Will Be Blood' did not. i found the score of this film to be very distracting. this movie was just too damn long. in my opinion, no movie should be longer than 2 hours. if it runs longer than 2 hours then some shit needs to be cut out. i really wanted to like this movie, it has such a cool name. this movie: LAME

i also sketched some,

these are just warm up, doodle sketches. 2 hulks, 2 daredevils , and 1 character design for 'the Mole Men of Atlanta', from Awesome Marcus Ninja. the first Hulk, i tried to do an up lighting effect but i kinda messed it up under the eyes. i do like the hair, it's kinda like Arnolds hair from 'Pumping Iron'. it looks shitty, but i thought i'd post it anyway.

Shagaharamesh sketches - pencils to inks

Awesome Ninja Sketch - step by step

here's a step-by-step of a promo Awesome Marcus Ninja piece i did recently. step 1 is the original concept from my sketchbook. step 2 is the light pencils with a 4h pencil. step 3 is the finished pencils with a 2h and hb pencils. step 4, i've added inks with a Staedtler B and S marker (with India ink). step 5 , i realized that some shadows are missing around Marcus' midsection, so i added 'em in. step 6 is the finished product, coloured in Photoshop.

what do ya think? i normally skip some of these steps, to save time but when it is done the proper way the end result is usually of a higher quality.

Toronto ComiCON - Fan Appreciation Event

This past weekend (April 12 - 13, 2008) was the Hobbystar Toronto ComiCON: Fan Appreciation Event . I shared a two tables with Digital Kontent and a nice young man by the name of Brian Boodnarine.

we where there on Saturday and Sunday, we gave away a ton of cool prizes in our Super-Awesome-Raffle, and we drew a helluva lot a sketches. super fun.

i gotta be honest, i loved how busy the show was, and i recognize that it was great value for a show that size, but i wasn't a fan of the layout of tables. i realize HobbyStar was trying different stuff to see what works, but i wasn't to happy about facing the backwall. i hate being negative but there has to be a better way to layout the tables. it was still all good, though. thanks Kevin Boyd and James Armstrong of Hobbystar.

Digital Kontent (JohnBoy, Paulie, Iby, and Milo, plus K.Song) did a great job running the tables. thanks.

Here's what i appreciated,

- Brian 'the Bood' Boodnarine : Brian put together an awesome sketchbook called, the Bloody Brian Bot sketchbook, and he sketched his ass off the whole weekend. it was Brian's first show, as an artist, and hopefully not his last. i had Brian sketch me a Shagaharamesh, when he had a little downtime.

check out Brian's new blog.

- the brothers Troung ( Jason and Danny ) were first in line, like always. i didn't get to sketch anything for Jason or Danny, but they walked away with a few nice raffle prizes. i actually asked Jason if i could start something for him when i wasn't busy, but he said to make sure to get everyone else who wants one first. what a gent. D & J, i will be always happy to draw for you guys, just ask. don't be shy.

- Alfonso Espinos, Studio Comix : Alfonso was sitting next to us and selling his awesome sketchbooks and mini-comix, NightSpike. Alfonso & i met previously at last years Paradise Toronto Comicon ( June 2007) . he has been making and publishing comics in Mexico for 13 years. his stuff is really great and energetic. Alfonso & i traded sketches of each others characters. check out the Shagaharamesh he did for me. i love it!

- Marcio Takara: Marcio was sitting on the other side of us. he had some really amazing prints. a lot of DC characters, a little Star Wars, and a lot of awesomeness. Marcio was very friendly, and is super talented. Marcio actually gave me one of his mini-poster prints, that i was checking out the whole weekend. thanks, Marcio.

- Michelle : my friend/helper/promo girl for the weekend. a lot of people walked away with our sample of Awesome Marcus Ninja thanks to Michelle and her excellent cleavage. thanks, Michelle.

- Angston : a huge comic fan & art collector, who i've seen at many Toronto shows but never had the chance to meet. Angston asked me to draw The Escapist, which I've never read or drawn before. He even offered to pay and was surprised to find i wasn't charging. Angston talked with me quite a bit about the Escapist. he was very patient and happy with the sketch i gave him, and he rewarded me with an out-of-print Escapist book that features a Jeff Brown story. awesome! on top of that, Angston sent me an email with the drawing i did, thanking me. no no, thank you.

- Jeff Lemire : Eisner Award and Shuster Award nominee, artist/author of the Essex County Trilogy, and Xeric Award winning Lost Dogs. i love Jeff's work! i've met Jeff before twice and he is always super nice . now, i am not a big collector of art and signed books but Jeff was doing sketches for $10. i had to do it. no choice. i asked him to do a non-super hero character of his choice. Jeff went with his main character from Lost Dogs, because he hadn't drawn him in a while. i love it! congrats on you Eisner and Shuster nominations and good luck Jeff.

- Christian : i'm still not sure who this kid is. he was hanging out at our table and making friends with JohnBoy and Brian. he is the son of one of the other artists ( don't remember who) and he was super-knowledgeable about comics and he was pretty damn funny too.

- My Surprise: seeing as this was the same week as my birthday, Milo, Kathryn and Iby decided to take it upon themselves to have other, super talented artist do their rendition of Shagaharamesh as a (super awesome amazing) gift to me, knowing that i love other artists versions of my characters. wow! check out the 3 Shagaharamesh sketches by Agnes Garbowska, Kent Burles, and Jeff Lemire.
thanks guys! i love it!

- Francis Manapul : an incredible artist. i got to speak with him briefly but I didn't get the Manapul Shagaharamesh sketch because i was too damn busy drawing. i love Fancis' art, maybe next time.

- Lar DeSouza : artist for Least I Could DO web comic. very talented and very nice guy.

- Jeff Moss and Donnie Coulter: the hosts of The Watchtower Podcast. i listen to the show every week and it was finally nice to meet them.

great show! thanks to everyone who came out to support me, Brian, and Digital Kontent.

xoxo

comics

i'm gonna keep it short and sweet.

i read some books. not all are brand new, but whatever. i haven't gotten around to picking up Secret invasion #1 or Kickass #2 , yet. so what?

Let's go!

Omega the Unknown #7 ( of 10 ) - GREAT ! BRILLIANT ! there has been a lot of set up and now, with 3 issues left, it is all coming together. i love it.




















Thor # 7 - GREAT! guest art from Marko Djurdjevic blew my mind. his line work is as good (if not better ) than his painted works. great fill-in for the stellar Olivier Coipel.




















New Avengers #39 - the controversial 'swipe' issue by David Mack. it was a really good issue and Macks art was great. i liked it. i don't know if or what was swiped and i don't care because i know that Mack doesn't need to swipe. GREAT!

















All Star Batman & Robin #9 - i never thought i could dislike a book by Jim Lee and Frank Miller. i hate this book. it is not Batman.
' OH MY GAWD, BATMAN PAINTED EVERYTHING INCLUDING HIMSELF AND ROBIN YELLOW AND STARTED A FIGHT WITH GREEN LANTERN!!!!!'
wow. riveting.
LAME!!!! the lamest thing is that i keep buying it. argh!

All Star Superman #10 - story by Grant Morrison = BRILLIANT. art by Frank Quitely = SUPER BRILLIANT. love it.

Comics Now! #2 - the alternative to Wizard magazine is PRETTYGOOD. this issue was a little more content, which is good. i will continue to buy this.

i'll have my Toronto ComiCON review/story in a day or 2. i'll let you know what went down.

Toronto ComiCON this weekend (April 12 - 13)

i will be there, along with the Digital Kontent guys, and artist Brian 'the Bood' Boodnarine, in the Artist Alley. if you are around, please check us out.

this is quite the show that Hobbystar has put together.

i am most excited to be able to meet

1) Alex Maleev , artist on Bendis' Daredevil run, which in my opinion, are the best Daredevil stories of all time.

2) Ryan Ottley , artist of Invincible. i didn't truly appreciate Ryan's art until i recently started reading his blog, where he will post sketches and step by step finished pieces.

3) Jeff Lemire. Jeff's Essex County books, along with his Xeric award winning Lost Dogs are some of the greatest, saddest, emotional stories i've ever read. I've met Jeff twice before and i always look for him at shows.

there are a lot of other really great guests, check 'em out here.

if you need more info on how to get to the show and tickets click here.

please check us out in the Artist Alley, we will be giving away a lot of cool raffle prizes.

see you there.

I Heart Frank Quitely

so i was checking out Newsarama and i got a look at Frank Quitely's variant cover to All-Star Batman & Robin #10. it is fuckin amazing! Quitely is my favourite artist. looking at this image makes me think that, as much as i enjoy Jim Lee's art, i would probably like All-Star Batman & Robin if Quitely were the artist. you know? instead of buying it every month and hating it?


wow! look at that pic! i hate to get all negative but anyone who doesn't like Frank Quitely's art is an IDIOT.

Mr. Quitely, will you sign my baby?

R.I.P. Chuck Heston

the greatest (over)actor 1923 - 2008

sketch page

i had to get something out of my big portfolio that was tucked away in my closet and i came across this sketch page of random assorted women. i am not that great at drawing women, so sometimes i'll just force myself to draw pages of only women, as practice. i cant remember where it is from, but the pose of the woman holding the sword is swiped.

Awesome Marcus Ninja concept sketches

Joel and I are working on a special short story called Tales of Awesome Marcus Ninja, to showcase at Heroescon in June. I'm not gonna go into too much detail but there is a giant robot involved and i'm posting some of my concept sketches. please feel free to let me know if you like/hate them prettygoodcomics@gmail.com

xo